SOHO Firewall Savvy

A firewall for a SOHO (Small Office Home Office) is the first line of defense and plays an important role in an overall security strategy. Because a SOHO has limited resources, the firewall product they implement must be relatively easy to use and maintain, and be cost-effective. This paper will attempt to provide some guidelines for choosing, installing and configuring a firewall for a small office. Specifically it will do the following: First, define a firewall and explain why a small office needs one. Second, provide a checklist of evaluation criteria for selecting a firewall and explain their importance. Third, explain the implementation and maintenance of a firewall based on a real world example. In addition, this paper will explain the various features of what a firewall can do and why it is essential. The Sonicwall SOHO31 firewall was used as an actual example of a hardware firewall installed in a small office. It was chosen because it is ICSA2 certified and met the criteria for 'must have' features in a SOHO firewall which will be outlined below. This paper will elucidate some of the issues small businesses are faced when considering firewalls as part of their overall security plan.